Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), Business Week Magazine Designate Aeron chair the Exclusive Gold Award Winner in Furniture Category of International Competition
Herman Miller, Inc., a leading global provider of furnishings and services for the work environment, today announced that a design jury of top business executives and educators has chosen the Aeron chair as one of 36 "Designs of the Decade," and the only Gold award winner in the furniture category.
The Designs of the Decade: Best in Business 1990-1999 Awards competition is sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and Business Week magazine. The awards program honors the best examples of design's contribution to business success by acknowledging the products and strategies that represent the most compelling design/business stories of the 1990s.
Herman Miller Chairman David Nelson will accept the Gold award this evening (November 19) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
"The Aeron chair evolved to become a design classic," said jury member Lorraine Justice, Ph.D., IDSA, in announcing the award. "One of the first to successfully combine ergonomics, aesthetics, and quality manufacturing and materials, it adds to the quality of work life." Justice is director of the industrial design program at Georgia Tech.
"We are honored that among the 189 designs entered, the Aeron chair was recognized as the exclusive Gold award winner in the furniture category," said Nelson. "The Aeron chair epitomizes the quality and character that have distinguished Herman Miller products in the marketplace for more than 50 years."
Founded in research and realized in Herman Miller's problem-solving approach to design, the Aeron chair has become an icon for the digital age. Its success has strengthened the company's reputation for design leadership and serves as a very visible example of true product innovation.
The company also understands that true innovation can't be created by corporate decree. "The Aeron chair was designed by humans, not committees," says co-designer Bill Stumpf. "Otherwise it could never have happened."
Don Chadwick, who teamed up with Stumpf to design the Aeron chair, calls it "the culmination of ideas that came together at the right time and in the right place."
"Yes, the time was right for change," continues Stumpf. "In every era there are products that speak to a culture. Aeron has become an icon of cultural change."
In addition to its international acceptance as an essential element of today's office environment, the Aeron chair resides in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and in the collections of other museums around the world.
Designs of the Decade competition entries were submitted in categories ranging from cars and computers to museum exhibits and furniture. International in scope, six of the thirty-six winners were from countries outside of the U.S., including two each from Canada and Japan, one from Germany, and one from Sweden. A gallery of the winners will be on IDSA's Web site, www.idsa.org, starting November 19. The winners also are featured in the November 29 issue of Business Week magazine, now on newsstands.
Formed in 1965, IDSA is the association dedicated to representing the industrial design profession to business, government, education, the media, and the general public and to serving that profession's information, education, and networking needs.
Herman Miller, Inc., is an international firm engaged in the manufacture and sale of furniture systems, products, and related services for offices, health-care facilities and other uses. The company is based in Zeeland, Michigan.
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